Un-sexed chicks eye pecking?

[Canadianbred]

My family has been raising chickens for longer than my memory goes, and I never really recall this being an issue. We recently ordered 22 new birds through a hatchery in a nearby town, 12 sexed and 10 un-sexed. The 12 are bred layers, and the 10 are meat birds. The problem is: they're continually pecking the crap out of each other's eyes, and today it seems like some real damage has been done. We tried putting them in the sleeping box (they sleep in a box at night for warmth, and are in a cage during the day), which resulted in one getting trampled. I'm just wondering if it's because some of the un-sexed ones are roosters (I'm sure some are) and are picking fights. I realize this sounds pretty amateurish, though it's mainly because my sister used to deal with the majority of the chicken's issues aaaand she moved out the other year. Just not entirely sure how to handle this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[ArizonaNessa]

I am going to go out on a limb here and bet your chickens are light colored? Will post more if I am right.

 

[wildorchid053]

they love to peck at dark spots and those eyes are just the ticket.. one of mine got pecked good and wouldn't open her eyes so i brewed really strong tea and applied it to her eyes 3x a day and next day she was opening them again.. i don't know what you can do to stop it..now that they are 2 weeks it seems to have slowed down alot

 

[Canadianbred]

Quote:
Yes the un-sexed ones are a light yellow, I believe they were called broilers though I'm not totally sure if that's the proper name. The layers are a lightish brown with lighter stripes on their backs, I don't remember what they're called. Thanks for the answer




Quote:
Yeah, there's one or two with a squinchy eye. What kind of tea do you figure, just earl grey or something else? Do you figure it'd help to add bits of shiny/speck-like stuff to maybe draw attention to something other than little eyeballs? Thanks for the answer

 

[ArizonaNessa]

I have found that anytime I am raising light colored birds I can't put them in with colored chicks because their eye stands out so much against the light color that the other birds peck it thinking its a bug. Just give them a little more room and something to play with occasionally like a crushed up boiled egg. It will stop.